Oh, Rats!

I know this is the Year of the Dragon, but you’d think it was the Year of the Rat!  Our rat calls are up nearly 30% over last winter!  This is good for us, but not so good for homeowners on the front line of the war on rats.

Being do-it-yourselfers, we understand that folks want to try to bait and trap rats out of their homes first, before calling a professional.  But many times they fail.  Why?  Well, let’s review a few of the most common mistakes homeowners make when they try to do it themselves first. 

3 Costly Rat Mistakes

• Mistake #1: Placing poison in the attic and sub area.  We don’t recommend placing poison within the structure, as rats may die inside in your attic, sub area and even within your walls.  The smell of a decomposing rat is not pleasant, and retrieving and removing it can end up being more costly than calling a professional in the first place.
• Mistake #2: Not understanding the importance of a sealed up house.  You can trap and bait all you want.  But if you haven’t sealed up your home to exclude rats, insects and other critters, they’re going to keep coming back.  The wet and cold flush them into warm houses in the winter -isn’t that where you want to be?  Seal up your homes.  If you can’t get to it, pay someone to do it.  It will save you money in the long run, guaranteed. 
• Mistake #3: Underestimating the intelligence of a rat.  Rats are pretty smart.  You need to know how to bait your traps and where to set them.  Older rats will figure you out, so do your research.   Place traps in their “runs” and be consistent.  You can place 20 traps out, but if you don’t do it right, those traps are a waste of your money.

If you are seeing several droppings a day inside your home and you aren’t having luck trapping the rats yourself, call a professional.  Rat droppings you can see.  Rat urine you can’t.  But there will be a lot more urine than droppings!  (You can see it with a black light.) Rodent excrement is a health hazard, so don’t mess around.  If you need help, call us today.  We’ll give those rats an eviction notice…in a scurry.  Oops!  I mean in a hurry!

Kris

Hmmm….A Musical Trap?

Last month, give or take, we went on a routine rat call, or so it would seem!

 At approximately 08:30 hours on a Friday morning, I received a call from a frantic middle-aged woman (a realtor to boot) saying she had several rats in her kitchen.  She said she was up on her chair in the middle of her kitchen and would not come down until we arrived to take care of the beasts.  A rat was running back and forth in her kitchen as we spoke.

 Well, being trained in the art of customer service, I took this as a clue that she wanted us out there STAT.  Now, I live for these interesting calls, but with great disappointment, I had to send the #2 Trained Killer out on this one.

After our technician investigated the scene, he found the “little beast” had most likely entered through the cat door and was probably running solo.  He cleaned up the droppings and disinfected the scene, concluding that the rat must still be in the kitchen.

The technician decided to set some traps, one of which was placed behind the refrigerator.  As the technician moved the refrigerator back into place, he unknowingly dropped his cell phone out of his shirt pocket and it slid underneath the fridge.  That evening it was nighty-night for Mr. Rat.

On Saturday morning, I received a call from this customer to say she didn’t know we used musical rat traps.  Huh?  I told her I didn’t know that, either, and asked her to explain.  She said, “The rat is trapped and the music keeps playing over and over and it’s driving me crazy!  Can you please come out and stop this!”  By this time, I was puzzled and thought maybe she was a bit crazy, but I sent someone over right away.

You’ve probably guessed what happened.  The technician’s cell phone, which was just adjacent to the rat trap, had been ringing and voicemails were left for him.  The cell phone was ringing the alert signal to let him know he had voicemails and it kept playing over and over every several minutes.  Since the customer could not see the phone, she just assumed it was the rat trap singing that it had gotten its prey.  Boy, did we all have a good laugh about that!

It seems like nothing is just “routine” in this business!

Dave